Defying orders

Holy Orders, Irelands Melbourne Cup challenger, has become the talk of Australia  for all the wrong reasons

Willie Mullins knew what was going on, he just didn’t know what it had become. Word reached him before he could be told. In the limousine sent to fetch Mullins and his wife Jackie from Melbourne airport early on Wednesday morning the radio was tuned to the sports news. Live from Sandown racetrack was a reporter with the latest bulletin on Holy Orders’ petulance. From the newspapers to radio to television Holy Orders had become part of the schedule. A news story, a pantomime, a scream.

The build-up to the Melbourne Cup is the longest and loudest drum roll in racing. To acclimatise and satisfy quarantine regulations, overseas horses begin arriving in September, some of them entered to run in other races on the way to the Cup, held on the first Tuesday of November. From the day they land their morning work is scrutinised and reported by the local